Until the middle of the 19th century, the Athos peninsula was covered with thick old-growth forests with a great variety of species, as reported by Grisebach in 1841. Grisebach also wrote that nowhere in Europe had he met such density and fullness as in the sacred forest of the Holy Mountain. But at the end of 19th century, and especially after the Russian revolution in 1917, and Greek rural reformation in the 20’s, the monasteries turned to the exploitation of their forests, mainly of chestnut forests to make up for the lost revenues from their various properties.
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